TODD IN JAPAN - Melissa Dybas - 12/19/06

I recently moved from Minnesota to a small town in Japan for work. I've been here for about a month and have made only one friend: a Japanese man who is about 30 years older than I am, and who speaks slightly more English than I speak Japanese (which basically means that I can order a beer in his bar, and he understands that I am from America). I was wandering around town one evening and found his bar because it has a sign that says, "Folk, Blues, Jazz and Rock"! The bar is big enough for just 6 people to be in there at a time, and it's lined with bookshelves of albums, cds, books on music and videos. (He showed me this crazy video of Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia doing a duet while on a bus to Canada!!!) So we listen to music together and watch music videos and rate artists by giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Unfortunately, we cannot explain our ratings to one another.

I had a feeling this guy (his name is Aosen), might like Todd Snider, but I didn't have any of his cds with me, I only had them on my computer. So finally the other day I brought my laptop in and played Todd Snider for him. He appeared to like him as much as I do, and so we listened for a few hours!

Aosen (R).

So in a tiny bar on the other side of the world, a 28-year-old American girl and a 57-year-old Japanese guy are hanging out, with close to no verbal communication ability, bonding over [Todd's] music!